(so POC don't have to)

Tumblr Q & A: Same Racist Shit, Different Racist

Q: “racial privilege is still whites only”, and “white folks do NOT experience racism”, oh really? tell that to the one white kid living in the projects getting chased home from school everyday by kids with razor blades just for being white in the wrong neighborhood. privilege is relative, and systemic (aka institutional) racism is not the only form of racism.

A: Which one white kid am I telling this to? The one in your imagination?

The fact that there is only one white kid in your supposed example says everything. True or false, a single individual experience of harassment does not prove whites are equal victims of racism; what you’re talking about is prejudice. Even if whites get shit from POC, this doesn’t take away the power and privilege of having white skin in a racist society. This doesn’t mean POC suddenly have racial privilege. A person of color calling a white person a “cracker” or “chasing” them with razor blades (razor blades? really?) does not determine what their opportunities in life will be, it does not dehumanize them, and it does not make white supremacy disappear. Racism is prejudice and power, meaning POC do not gain any social, institutional, political, or individual power by calling out white folks.

If someone is harassed for “being white” in the “wrong” neighborhood, then the logical track of that argument means there are “right” neighborhoods for being white. That would be a result of the institutional racism you mentioned. If you understand that racism is not only systemic, then you should understand that racism is not only interpersonal either. When white folks have the systemic power of white privilege and the social power of being white, they could be chased down the street by POC with lions and assault rifles and this still wouldn’t be racism.

Give me something difficult to refute. These same old racist arguments are boring.